Real out-Gunned by Henry

More importantly, perhaps, it left them on the verge of booking their place in the quarter-finals in the second leg at Highbury in two weeks time.

Henry8217;s goal two minutes into the second half decided the game, though Arsenal had a hatful of scoring chances. The Frenchman picked up a neat pass from Fabregas close to the halfway line, meandered past three Real Madrid players, drew keeper Iker Casillas and then tucked a low shot beyond his reach into the far corner.

8216;8216;I knew I had to take one chance,8221; he said. 8216;8216;We had some chances that we wasted in the first half and I said to myself: 8216;I have to take that chance8217;.8217;8217;

Henry, the Arsenal captain, says his young side proved they have nothing to fear from Europe8217;s elite. 8216;8216;Because I scored and I8217;m the captain, people will put me ahead of the team, but the whole team was tremendous8217;8217;, he said. 8216;8216;We were brilliant defensively. Freddie Ljungberg, Gilberto and Cesc Fabregas were all over the place and some of the things the young players did at their age at the Bernabeu were amazing.8217;8217;

8216;8216;When you play in big games like the Champions League it8217;s important not to be scared and even when we were under pressure out there we were keeping the ball and trying to pass to feet. Big games and big environments sometimes help to show you where people are and the team showed a lot of composure out there.8217;8217;

Manager Arsene Wenger said he hoped the team8217;s performance would persuade the prolific striker to stay at the club. 8216;8216;I told you we8217;d get a big night from Thierry and he produced it tonight8217;8217;, he said. 8216;8216;I think this will help convince him that he has a future at the club because the young boys have shown they can produce the results he wants.8217;8217;

I don8217;t know what happened, says Beckham

MADRID: Real Madrid midfielder David Beckham was dismayed by his team8217;s lacklustre performance in their 1-0 Champions league defeat by Arsenal on Tuesday. It was the first time the England captain has faced Premier League opposition since moving to Spain in 2003. 8216;8216;I said before that if we didn8217;t perform we wouldn8217;t win the game and we didn8217;t perform8217;8217;, he told reporters. 8216;8216;Arsenal played well but we didn8217;t play like we have done for the last two months. I don8217;t know what happened. They got the space to enjoy themselves and they did well. Tonight was a really bad performance from the whole team. The players were not working for each other and were not getting in the box. From the first five minutes you could see we weren8217;t playing with the confidence we8217;ve been showing,8221; said Beckham. 8220;I knew Arsenal wouldn8217;t come here and defend.8217;8217; Reuters